"Dead Man" Who Listens to the Music of the Spheres at the Clark Goolsby Art Exhibition

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

In the damp dungeon of an abandoned gloomy castle … Or not, not so: in one black-black room … Again, not that. This dead man ("Dead Man" from an art exhibition by Clark Goolsby) is not suitable for either a Gothic novel or for its distant cousin, a childhood horror story. In the unremarkable hall of New York's POVevolving gallery, a corpse-installation hangs in the interior without any signs of the dark Middle Ages.

A wooden skeleton with foam rubber arms, legs and head, rather impressive in size (5.5 meters in length), hovers at a distance of a little more than 10 centimeters from the floor. It hangs on multi-colored strings attached to the ceiling. What would such an art exhibition mean?

The multicolored ropes resemble the strings of a harp. The association with music, and even so beautiful, speaks first of all that Clark Goolsby's "Dead Man" (Clark Goolsby) hangs in this room not to scare anyone. He listens to the music of the spheres, angelic voices, and maybe an aeolian harp, the strings of which are touched by a warm wind. This wondrous unearthly melody is extremely pleasant to the soul of the deceased, attracts and pulls along. It is thanks to her that he soars above the ground, which he now leaves forever. Goodbye, gardens and swamps, now the sky awaits me, as if an unusual installation tells us.

Since we are already talking about what the multi-colored ropes mean, we will offer another interpretation. The twine is a loving top view. Perhaps it is the relatives who have gathered at the coffin watching, and the pain of loss intensifies the good feelings for the deceased a hundredfold. Or maybe the source of the gaze is even higher: God, in a fatherly way, looks at his next servant and prepares to accept his soul.

Combining these interpretations, let us suppose that the "Dead Man" by Clark Goolsby ascends to heaven to the enchanting music of the spheres, he is accompanied by the loving and sad looks of his loved ones, and God is looking at this whole picture with interest from above.

In Gabriel García Márquez's great novel One Hundred Years of Solitude, one of the heroines ascended to heaven on sheets - so why shouldn't the object of a modern art exhibition get there with the help of colored ropes?